OPEC balancing act depends on over-performance

Compliance with the OPEC-led effort to balance the market with production cuts was supported by “several over-performing countries,” a committee said. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, with support from non-member states like Russia, are in year two of an effort to drain a surplus from the five-year average of crude oil inventories held by the world’s leading economies through coordinated production cuts. A committee monitoring the agreement, led in part by Russia, said conformity in January was over 100 percent. The effort has been credited with setting a $50 per barrel floor under the price of crude oil, but has been offset somewhat by steady gains in U.S. shale oil production. The joint monitoring committee said that, so far, it was satisfied with the overall results, but took note of volatility in the price of crude oil since the start of the year. The […]